5/29/16

Last week, we posted a complete video to our YouTube channel called Understanding Aortic Stenosis. This was a big moment for our team, and we wanted to spread it around as quickly as possible- as of today, the video has accumulated over 700 views. I'd say we accomplished that goal. The video's success marked the first major stride towards developing the Heartwell Project, our effort towards educating everyday people of all backgrounds about heart disease. As I've said in previous posts, this summer is not meant to be a dormant period for it, so we'll continue to make progress. We also have a TV appearance with Deborah Duncan coming up at the end of June, which will work wonders in regards to our publicity. I see a lot of good things in The Heartwell Project, an incredible amount of potential that we're only starting to tap into. In addition to all of this, I have arranged to present the video (and do a Q&A) in an elderly community in Dallas next weekend. I'm so excited to host this whole process on my internship blog- it really tells a story of my thoughts and experiences throughout The Heartwell Project's development. Despite the huge importance I've been putting on the project, I haven't forgotten my "roots" at the HVI. I'll be able to join Dr. Nguyen for more surgeries, and school can't get in the way. Summer 2016 is going to be eventful, try to keep up!

Here's a link to our channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC600D_nPsIPZvv8zBbyjSqw

5/13/16

This morning's events were almost identical to last week's, with the exception being a rather interesting lecture that I attended before valve conference. The lecture was about robot-assisted tumor removals in the mediastinum (the upper chest cavity, containing the heart and lungs and surrounded by the ribs), something I'd never learned about. What really interested me about this lecture was the footage the doctors had of the surgery. The robotic arms sent into the mediastinum were accompanied by a high-quality video camera, which gave everyone watching the lecture a really great look at the cavity and the movement of the robotic arms. Robot-assisted surgery is being heralded as the next big step for minimally invasive surgery, and many of the doctors at the lecture were genuinely impressed by the robot's range of movement. The two robotic arms are even equipped with cauteries, special tools that use an electric current to burn through tissue. After the lecture, the room broke out into (well-mediated) discussion, with the doctors speaking their minds about the footage- some argued that the dexterity of a human hand would be hard to match using a machine, while others preferred the robot assistance for its cleanliness and quicker patient recovery time. The latter argument became much stronger after the lecturer told everyone that the patient from the footage went home just one day after the surgery. A thoracotomy tumor removal would take weeks to heal, and leave the patient with a noticeable scar along his or her chest; a robot-assisted removal, however, just leaves three small puncture holes. The world of thoracic surgery is truly changing rapidly.

Here's a video example of a robot-assisted posterior mediastinal tumor removal. This might be graphic for some:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arUrgtTv1TY

P.S, I've had a bit of a cold recently, which is why this post is going up so late- but hey, better late than never.

5/6/16

Notice anything different around here? Though I'm sure some of you were super attached to the old gray color on this blog, I wasn't a huge fan- so, I changed the template and colors. I write on this blog almost weekly, so I see it frequently enough to want a design I'm actually happy with. I think this new one is an improvement.

Today, as I suspected, Dr. Nguyen did not have any cases. Despite this, it was still a great morning; after getting coffee and a banana, I met with Dr. Nguyen at valve conference in the HVI. It has been at least three weeks since I have attended a conference, and today's visit represented a healthy return to the lively, doctor-filled room. I got there early enough to get an agenda hand-out from one of the doctors mediating the conference, which covered the patient names and the doctors responsible for their cases. It became way easier to soak up and understand what they were referencing in conversation, as the patients' conditions were on the pages. After finishing patient rounds, Dr. Nguyen, his assistant Loren and I went down to imaging to see one of his patient's 3D TTEs (3D transthoracic echocardiographs). These are very different from echocardiograms, which are what most people imagine when they think of heart scans. 3D TTE is one of the most recent techniques for heart imaging, and its modernity definitely shows- it's easier to get an idea of what things are with 3D TTEs, as their colors do a great job of giving depth to the animations. 

Here's a gif of 3D TTE in action:
https://media.giphy.com/media/EpMr2qzXxrJny/giphy.gif

I'll post some more stuff regarding The Heartwell Project as soon as I get an update from our animator.

Update 5/1/16: "Dr. Heartwell" Animation Preview and Short Hiatus

"Two weeks without a blog post? Is he slacking off?"

It's been a bit over two weeks since I've posted anything, so I thought I'd address that (first). Since I only attend my internship once a week- on Fridays- these posts are totally contingent on me being able to go on that specific day, from 6:50 am to around 11:00 am. So, for the past two Fridays, scheduling conflicts have come up that have prevented me from going. Dr. Nguyen has his occasional business trips, and I have school. I'll almost definitely have a post for this upcoming Friday, but it's too early to tell what I'll be doing if I go; I'm hoping for a case, but Dr. Nguyen could very well have valve conference that morning. There's one surgery that I'm just dying to see, which is a VSARR (Valve-Sparing Aortic Root Replacement)- I talked about it a while ago in a detailed post, but I missed the last one that Dr. Nguyen performed (at least to my knowledge). I won't explain it here, as that would be...long, but what's being done in that surgery is nothing short of incredible. Not to mention the cool name. I'm definitely going to try to see one.

On to more important things, the gang and I have been patiently awaiting updates from our animator about progress on the Dr. Heartwell project. I've had a look at what's been created, and I'm really impressed with how far our basic ideas have come. We started this a few months ago with some simple goals- all we had to show for it was a few pages of rough pencil storyboard sketches and some Microsoft Word documents full of notes. It is quickly starting to unfold as something tangible, something ready to be shown to others with satisfaction; that's why I'd like to give a quick sample of the animation on this blog post. Its creation process has been a really unique experience for me, and it isn't comparable to any sort of work I've done in the past. It's grounded in the real world, but goes far past volunteer service, as I'm working with professionals from various fields to get it done. It'll definitely stand as the best group project of my high school career- too bad I'm not getting graded on it.

P.S., please tell me if the video isn't working.